# 1. Identify Your Service Name

Many commands and configurations require your specific service name. You can find this easily in the interface.

• Open your project in the Zerops Dashboard.
• Look at the project overview to find the exact name of the service you want to manage.

• Use this exact name whenever a command or pipeline configuration asks for the <service-name> placeholder.

# 2. Configure CI/CD Pipeline for Tag-Based Deployments

Go to Service Settings > Pipelines & CI/CD Settings in the Zerops Dashboard and connect your repository with a trigger on new tags. This makes your production deployments intentional and safely versioned. You can also add a regex filter (like ^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$) for strict semantic versioning.

Alternatively, integrate zcli push into your existing CI/CD pipeline for maximum control. Learn more about pipeline triggers.

# 3. Deploy to Production

Using tags gives you full control over exactly which version goes live. Publish a new tag in your repository (like a GitHub Release) to trigger a production deployment:

git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release version 1.0.0"
git push origin v1.0.0

# 4. Configure Autoscaling

Review and tune the autoscaling options for your databases and runtime applications in Service Settings > Automatic Scaling Configuration within the Zerops Dashboard. Here are the key parameters:

verticalAutoscaling:
  minRam: 1
  minFreeRamGB: 0.5
  minFreeRamPercent: 20

# 5. Enable Custom Domain Access

To route real traffic to your app, configure public HTTP access in Service Settings > Public Access & Internal Ports from the Zerops Dashboard. Add your custom domain and point your DNS records to the provided Zerops IPs:

Type   Name          Content          TTL
A      example.com   <zerops-ipv4>    Auto
AAAA   example.com   <project-ipv6>   Auto

For wildcard domains, add a CNAME for SSL validation. Check the public access documentation for full details.

Once everything is working perfectly, you can disable the Zerops subdomain access so all traffic flows through your official custom domain.

# 🎉 You are good to go!

Your application is now live and running in production. You have successfully completed the core setup.

The following sections are entirely optional. They cover extra features like notifications, advanced logging, and backups. You can safely stop reading here and come back later whenever you want to level up your environment.

# 6. Enable Log Forwarding (Optional)

For better observability, head to Project Settings > Log Forwarding & Logs Overview inside the Zerops Dashboard. You can easily forward your logs to services like Better Stack, Papertrail, or self-hosted solutions. Learn more about log forwarding.

# 7. Configure Database Backups (Optional)

Manage your automated encrypted backups in Service Settings > Backups on the Zerops Dashboard. By default, backups run daily (00:00-01:00 UTC) with a solid retention policy.

It is always a good idea to create a manual, protected backup before a major deployment:

zcli backup create <db-service> --tags pre-deploy,protected

Read the backup documentation for more options.

# 8. Set Up Diagnostic Access (Optional)

Install zCLI and set up secure access for maintenance:

For runtime services:

zcli vpn up
ssh <service-name>.zerops

For databases: Connect via the VPN to reach the project's private network, or set up secure direct IP access for your database admin tools. Check the VPN documentation for instructions.